June 2020
Tanner
Thorfinnson
,
RN
ICU
Monument Health Rapid City Hospital
Rapid City
,
SD
United States
Tanner went above and beyond what normal nursing duties call for. I am from another area and drive a semi for a contracting company that I own. I was passing through Rapid City to pick up a shipment for a customer. I stopped at a truck stop and unfortunately, my health took a turn for the worse. I became very light-headed and about passed out. I was rushed to the hospital where they discovered I had a bleed taking place. I had a procedure done today to stop the bleeding. My doctor said I was still at very high risk for bleeding so it was going to be a couple more days before I could be discharged from the hospital. I was wanting to leave bad and go AMA. I had a pocketbook in my semi with my customer's telephone number in it which was the only way for me to get ahold of them to let them know of my situation. My pick up time was scheduled for the next morning. If I was not able to contact them I would have received a very large fine. On top of that, my semi's "main power switch" was still on and it needed to be shut off so my engine wouldn't develop severe issues. I had no way of getting these things taken care of while I was here in the hospital as no one could help me out. The Flying J staff, police department, hospital security, and many others were asked to help me with this, but no one could. Finally, at one point my nurse mentioned a possible solution. He called Tanner, a fellow nurse, who was at home on his day off, to see if he could possibly do it. Without any question, Tanner wanted to help! He came to the hospital to get my keys and instructions I wrote down on exactly what needed to be done. He also came into my room to introduce himself and make sure he knew exactly what needed to be done. Tanner was able to find my semi in the parking lot, and accomplished everything I needed to be done! He then came back to the hospital to drop off my much-needed supplies to help resolve these issues for work. I cannot thank Tanner enough for what he did to go above and beyond his typical nursing duties to help a random stranger out. He proved to me that day what an Extraordinary Nurse does. His kindness will never be forgotten. He truly made my hospital stay go from really, really, really bad (not only related to my health but my job reputation) to something I can deal with without a problem.